Sidney Helps Out
by DonaldDouglasandToby6
Summary: Sidney is sent to the Little Western, but trouble arises when Sidney forgets a few things.


The Little Western was very busy indeed; the engines were worked off their wheels.

"I have to wonder how long I can work," panted Donald.

"I'm all for work, but this is too much, lads," agreed Douglas.

"Something must be done," finished Oliver.

The Fat Controller understood their troubles.

"I'm getting a Diesel from another part of the island to help," he said kindly.

But the engines were skeptical.

The Diesel that was sent was Sidney; a forgetful Diesel who's driver had to constantly remind him where he was going.

"Where are we going again?"

"To the Little Western!" grumbled the driver.

"Oh, I heard it's nice there. Lots of beaches. Sounds like fun!"

The engines were all at Arlesburgh when Sidney arrived.

"Hello, all!" tooted Sidney, "What do I have to do?"

"You have to take ballast trains down to the Small Railway and shunt our trains." replied Duck. Sidney frowned.

"I don't get to see the seaside?"

Duck chuckled.

"If you're lucky, you may be able to pull passengers."

"Class 08s weren't built to pull passengers," interrupted Oliver, "So you probably won't."

Duck glared at Oliver and he puffed away to take Alice and Mirabel.

"Aw, no seaside?"

"I'm afraid not, lad." replied Donald and he puffed away to take a ballast train.

"I'll show you around," said Oliver and he puffed away.

Oliver showed all the sights of the Little Western; the beaches, the harbor, and even the villages.

Sidney was enjoying himself enormously.

"Wow! I'm going to enjoy it here!"

"If he can remember where he's going…" muttered Oliver under his breath.

At Tidmouth, Oliver coupled up to his coaches, Isabel and Dulcie.

"Now your driver, I think, has GPS on his cell phone, so you should know where you are." and Oliver puffed away.

Sidney set to work shunting Douglas' goods train.

Douglas waited impatiently on the platform as BoCo arrived with some passengers.

"Hello, Douglas. Shouldn't you be leaving soon?" asked BoCo. "

Yes, but that dumb Sidney doesn't have a clue of which trucks to shunt! Look at him! He's shunting some vans full of produce, but I'm supposed to have coal trucks!"

"It's alright Douglas. He has memory loss after all."

"Well then, the Fat Controller made a poor choice sending him here," huffed Douglas.

Sidney's driver was cross.

"No Sidney, not produce! Coal!"

"Oh. You mean those ten trucks of coal? Whoops."

Now Douglas was late.

"Hurry up, ye silly Diesel!"

"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying," replied Sidney.

In five minutes, Sidney had shunted all of the coal trucks and a brakevan.

"Off you go!" called Sidney as the guard blew his whistle.

"Finally…" and Douglas puffed away.

BoCo, respectfully, said nothing as he honked his horn and oiled away.

Later, Sidney was shunting a passenger train when Molly puffed into the station.

"Hello, Sidney." Sidney looked up.

"Oh, hi."

"I see you're working on the Little Western. Have you seen the Small Railway?"

"Not yet," replied Sidney just as his driver started talking.

"According to this time sheet, we're going to have to arrange some empty trucks and head there right now." he said.

"Oh, alright then. See you Molly!" called Sidney.

"Goodbye!" puffed Molly as she puffed away.

Meanwhile, Douglas was at Haultraugh complaining to Duck.

"That stupid Diesel made me late!" he fumed.

"Well, I'm sorry Douglas, but Sidney's doing the best he can."

"Sure. And this is the engine who laid an egg once."

Duck chuckled, remember the memory.

"Sidney's a hard worker and usually shunts trucks around at the Dieselworks. For him, it's a nice change." Duck continued.

"Och, I have no time to argue with a quacker. I've got to go," huffed Douglas and he puffed away.

Duck sighed.

Meanwhile, Sidney was arranging some trucks to go to the Small Railway, but he couldn't find any brakevans.

"Wait, there's one!" pointed the driver and the shunter fastened the coupling.

It was Toad, Oliver's brakevan.

"Wait, what's going on?"

Sidney was already pulling out of the yard and onto the branch line, leaving Oliver with the yard.

When Oliver arrived, he realized that Toad wasn't there.

"Toad? Toad! He's gone!" cried Oliver.

"Sidney must've taken him," said the driver, "Never mind. We'll use that brown one over there."

Oliver sighed and started shunting trucks intro their proper places.

"Who knows where Toad will get to now..." he thought.

Sidney soon arrived at the Small Railway.

"Ah, here's the Diesel!" called Rex, "Just shunt your trucks under the shoot."

Sidney shunted the trucks, but too far. He rolled under the shoot and ballast fell all over him.

"*cough* *cough* Was that supposed to happen? *cough*"

"Well, this is getting nowhere," muttered Frank impatiently. "Come on, get it right!" he shouted.

"Frank, calm down. You're not saying a speech," joked Rex.

Frank growled and went down the line to get some workmen to clear the mess.

Soon, the mess was cleared and the guard blew his whistle.

Sidney rolled away, leaving Rex to shunt the trucks on the shoot.

"Douglas was right, he is quite... erm, forgetful..." thought Rex.

Sidney oiled into Tidmouth, where 'Arry and Bert were waiting to take over, since Sidney had to stay on the branch line.

"What are you doing here Sidney? This is a place for steam engines!" said 'Arry.

"I'm here to help on the branch line."

"Pah! You should be at the Dieselworks. You were Really Useful there." huffed Bert as the two Diesels were coupled and they oiled away, with Toad.

"Oh yikes. Mr. Sidney, help!" wailed Toad, but Sidney had already went back to his shunting in the yard.

At the Dieselworks, 'Arry and Bert unloaded the ballast; the ballast on the tracks near the Dieselworks were old.

Den and Dart came out to help.

But Den noticed something.

"Um... I think... erm... what I mean is... um... I think you've got..."

"Dizzy Diesels, just say it already!" fumed Dart.

"Oliver's brakevan." finished Den.

"Oh. Well, whoopee. We have a steam engine's brakevan. I'm so sad," grumped Bert sarcastically.

"Yeah, who cares? His name's Toad anyway." agreed 'Arry.

Suddenly, Oliver came racing in.

"Toad!" he cried, "Why are you here?"

"I'll explain to you on the way back, sir," replied Toad.

That night, the engines were talking about the day.

"Sidney's useless," huffed Douglas, "He doesn't know how to shunt the right trucks."

"You have to admit though that he does pretty good at pulling ballast," replied Donald.

"He stole Toad!" shirled Oliver, "I didn't get him back until just an hour ago! He was at the Dieselworks!"

"Now Oliver, I'm sure he didn't mean to. He's a nice Diesel."

"And besides, the way I heard it, 'Arry and Bert kept him there." added Donald.

"I don't understand why nobody likes SIdney. We needed help and we got it. Yet everybody's complaining." said Duck.

That shut the others up as Sidney rolled into the shed.

"Were you guys arguing?" he asked, confused.

"Nothing happened," replied Duck modestly.

"Oh, alright."

Sidney worked on the Little Western for the next few months until the traffic decreased.

When Sidney was to go back to the Dieselworks, the engines all gathered at Tidmouth.

"Goodbye Sidney! You've been a great help!" called Duck.

"I'll admit you did help a bit," muttered Oliver.

"Bye," smiled Sidney, and he rolled away to the Dieselworks, a wiser engine.


End file.
